Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Phase Dreamer: Family and I, June 4, 2020:

Was on my way to the publishing house at midday when I remembered it was Demide’s Speech and prize giving day service at school today. As though by default, I began mentally rehearsing a most cute pleading phrase and promise, about it being the last time I was going to recede on our schedule and… uh oh! That wasn’t going to work. At least not today when Hun’ was aboard the Boeing 747 on a business trip to Silicon Valley. Plan B would have to fall between asking Oluchi to return the favor I bestowed during the last Open day and being there in person. Well, I decided to appreciate of the blessing of self-employment, slip out of my Chief Executive heels for a moment and just be my children’s mother.

The traffic was light and I arrived at the school’s premise just in time to meet the Chairman’s speech. Goodness! How time flies. I remembered sitting on the courts as an alto singer of the most prestigious Mr. Bamfo’s choir, with Kanayo, Bisola and Fioye on days like this in our white shirts, black skirts and bow ties! To think that I was seated here today as a parent in my own alma mater got me emotional and I quietly mopped my eye. Things were a lot different now. New faces, new people, in fact the choristers were dressed in robes … so typical of life. Thoughts of Hun’ crossed my mind and left me wondering what he was doing at the moment. It was 2: 00 pm; he was definitely reading one of his books and having a drink, most likely his favorite: pineapple. Always so predictable. And then, it came. One of those telepathic moments passed between us and I blew him a kiss in absentia. Those moments had always existed every time we were physically separated over distances right from the very first time. It was only two months after our wedding and I had to be at the publishing house in Johannesburg. I had done my possible best to delegate the responsibility to my assistant, but things got very urgent and required my very presence. I could never forget the look on his face when I put my luggage in his trunk that morning. “But it’s only going to last three days and I’ll be back here before you could even blink.” I said to him. “The worst three days of my life, and it already feels like three decades. Sweets, you know I’m desperately going to miss you and…”, “Come on, Hun’ let’s not do this again. I promise you I’ll be home before you know it and all yours again. But right now, I have to be on that plane so I’d come home to you wearing the fragrance of success and Allure”, and with that planted a kiss on his lips. I was in for another brief round of kiss-planting and cajoling at the airport before I boarded the plane. He looked so boyishly cute in his green v-neck and brown khakis, sulking and rubbing his head like he did when he hit a brick wall. My Hunny Bun, I missed him already and tried to hold back tears for a while and finally let them flow freely as I looked out the aircraft window.It took an ovation to jerk me to the present and there was our baby girl, Ademide walking up to claim her award for Chief Opral Benson’s prize for the IYAOGE category. I proudly walked up to the podium, close enough to capture the moment with my camera as she picked up her plaque and certificate. The ceremony was really beautiful and refreshing and I was glad I hadn’t missed it for the world. At the end of the event, Ademide ran up to me with a number of friends, some of which I recognized as award winners too. I met a number of their parents, exchanged pleasantries as well as complimentaries and with that headed to pick Derin from his school and to fulfill the first phase of my promise to ‘Demide at her favorite eatery.